Seven Great Time-Lapse Travel Videos

Lists:Jim Benning sifts through YouTube's accelerated videos to find the seven best

01.13.09 | 9:09 AM ET

Watch enough time-lapse videos and you realize that speeding something up doesn’t necessarily make it more interesting. In the worst instances, watching a three-minute video of a three-day road trip feels like three weeks behind the wheel.

In recent days, I watched dozens of high-speed road trip movies. I endured videos with names like “Hong Kong Construction Afternoon Time Lapse” (music by Pink Floyd). And though it had nothing to do with travel, I even observed a tomato turn from a plump, bright red to a sunken moldy black in mere minutes. (Gross.) I did this to find YouTube’s best time-lapse videos that capture the feeling of travel, or a strong, unique sense of place. Because some are truly mesmerizing.